By Pierre Tran Paris - Dassault Aviation insisted on being appointed lead prime contractor and architect on a European next generation fighter jet, and also lead contractor on the fighter’s flight control system, executive chairman Eric Trappier said March 4. “These are two red lines,” he said on the sidelines…
By Pierre Tran Paris - An announced deal for the upgrade of 60 Airbus Helicopters Tiger attack helicopters, flown by the French and Spanish forces, was worth €4 billion ($4.4 billion) for the first batch of work, a senior source said. France will pay €2.8 billion for the upgrade of…
By Dr. Andrew Denison The invasion has made it all too clear that Germany is too big, too rich, and too geo-strategically important to forgo influence, to opt out of the competition with Russia and China. European security urgently needs German leadership in providing military capabilities, developing geostrategy, and mobilizing…
By Pierre Tran Paris - OCCAR, a European procurement agency, signed Feb. 24, 2022 a contract worth €7.1 billion ($8 billion) with Airbus Defence and Space as prime contractor for a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone, marking a step in the European pursuit of military, industrial, and political independence. “The Eurodrone program…
By Robbin Laird Recently, I had a chance to discuss the Ukraine crisis and its broader global context with Dr. Paul Bracken. Bracken started the discussion by focusing on the structural change aspect of the crisis. “The mainstream media focuses on the personalistic aspects of this conflict. "It’s interesting how…
By Robbin Laird The CH-53K comes into the USMC and into the Israeli Defence Force as both are in the process of transformation. The two forces are on different transformation paths with different adversaries as focal points, but this platform is coming to both forces as they are working new…
By Pierre Tran Paris - “The fate of not only our state is being decided, but also what Europe will be like,” the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Feb. 24. Zelenskiy was addressing the nation on the day of the Russian early morning missile attacks on the East European…
WE ARE REPOSTING THIS PIECE WHICH WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE FALL OF 2019 By Robbin Laird There were a wide range of presentations in Berlin at this year’s International Fighter Conference. Among those presenting were Air Force officers or industry representatives from countries facing a direct “existential threat” from…
